Sunday, July 23, 2023

Madam President?

The prospect of a Biden-Trump rerun in the 2024 presidential election is widely proclaimed as inevitable, but it’s worth remembering that anything might happen to upset that matchup between now and Election Day next November.

Trump’s gathering legal woes could soon reach a tipping point, which means the Republican Party may be forced to find an alternative, and a growing field of contenders have already begun positioning themselves accordingly.

On the Democratic side, the only announced candidates besides Biden so far are crackpots (like RFK Jr.) but everybody is uncomfortably aware that Biden is not getting any younger. He also is scoring consistently low in the public opinion polls.

Stepping into a potential void on the Democratic side, should that prove to be necessary, could be the 51-year-old governor of Michigan. In “How Gretchen Whitmer Made Michigan a Democratic Stronghold,” the New Yorker profiles this potential candidate, who remains little known outside of the Midwest.

The main headline of the article is “The New Blue Wall.”

We live in a country divided electorally into two almost equal halves — red and blue — and the outcome in 2024 will hinge on a relative handful of voters in a handful of swing states.

Michigan is one of them. Whitmer won the state house in Lansing by stitching together a coalition with suburban women voters at its core. She has a moderate, pro-business, pro-union, pro-choice, anti-extremist message that resonates widely in the Midwest and other battleground areas of the country.

She also survived a bizarre kidnapping plot after Trump ignited his base against her.

With the GOP stuck in the mud with Trump and his angry, rural grievance crowd, there is little chance for the red side to compete for Whitmer’s core constituency as long as Trump heads up the ticket.

So Whitmer could theoretically be the younger fresh face both parties may need to win. In interviews with the New Yorkerand CNN, among others, Whitmer has denied Presidential ambitions — for now.

But the election isn’t for another 16 months or so and a lot can and probably will change by the time Election Day rolls around…

LINKS:

No comments: